Palestinian sources said that the clashes erupted in the Ras Al-Amoud and Silwan neighborhoods in response to the death of 16-year-old Meilad Ayyash.
Ayyash was hospitalized in critical condition in East Jerusalem’s Al-Makassed hospital shortly after he was shot in the stomach on Friday during a Nakba Day rally. Palestinian doctors said he had no pulse when he arrived, and had already lost a great deal of blood. He died of his wounds on Saturday morning.
Hundreds of Palestinians from East Jerusalem and other Arab cities inside Israel attended the funeral. Calls of “Allahu Akbar” and “With our souls and our blood we will redeem you, Shahid,” sounded during the procession, which started at Ras Al-Amoud and went through the volatile Silwan neighborhood as well. Participants also hoisted Palestinian flags.
Prior to the funeral, Israeli police increased deployment near the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras Al-Amoud, where Ayyash resided, in an effort to thwart further rioting.
Tension is high in East Jerusalem and West Bank as Palestinians prepare to mourn on Sunday the creation of Israel in 1948, which they call the “Nakba”, or catastrophe, when some 800,000 of Palestinians were forced to leave their homes.
On Friday, clashes erupted between Israeli forces and Palestinians in East Jerusalem neighborhoods of in Silwan, Isawiyah and in the Old City. Israel police forces arrested 11 protesters.
Clashes also erupted in the West Bank villages of Ni’lin, Bil’in and Umm Salamouneh.
Palestinian activists behind a website on Facebook called “The Third Intifada” have called for a new uprising, which would see thousands of Palestinian refugees march towards homes from which they fled or were forced out of when Israel was created in 1948.
